A cool scooter that Honda never made !!!

Hi,

I ran across this on the BUSA site some time ago and just recently saw this again. Here is a link to see a few pictures of it. I think it is a cool looking scooter and also think it would be a cool scooter to have if they made it with a 600 cc twin.



http://tfic.com/gallery/main.php/v/OtherScooters/FB-S/



What do you think of it? And I wonder how much storage it would have had if it were produced. There is just something about this design that really seems like it would be a pretty cool scooter. I think I read it was to be a 250cc or 400 cc bike but don't know for sure.
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It appears to be (have been) a 400cc: http://world.honda.com/Tokyo1997/motor/move1/cypher.html

This one doesn't excite me near as much as the E4-01.

Hi Jeff, Hi Dale and Kim. Looks like the long awaited auto matic Goldwing! That front fender, those wheels, and the real quiz'er......... is that a valve cover poking out from behind the front wheel? A single, or twin like an old air cooled BMW??Very cool. Thanks for posting this Jeff......wonder what else is in Honda's warehouse?. Jeff.

From the link I posted in my earlier post:

A new-generation big scooter, the FB-S fuses a high-prestige design with a newly designed boxer twin engine to deliver a riding feel that's more like a motorcycle than a regular scooter. Length / 2,296mm Width / 805mm Height / 1,311mm Engine type / Liquid-cooled four-cycle boxer-twin Displacement / 399cm3

So, yes, based on the info in the link and now posted here directly - those are indeed valve covers. It is a "pancake" / "opposing twin" type engine.

Wow......Gotta go to work, but want to follow this as soon as I get home. Thanks Dale. Jeff

Well, as this scooter was originally displayed as a concept in 1997 at the Tokyo show and nothing else has ever been seen or heard of it since I don't think there is too much to follow.

If you would like Honda to build it the best approach you could take would be to line up a few thousand people and get them to commit several thousand dollars each in an escrow account. Then contact Honda with your commitment to purchase a set number of them. If they feel the cost of producing a bike that may not sell in mass quantities, but would produce a little profit for a limited rate production run - they might (not likely) go ahead.

Dale & Jeff,

Yeah, there really is nothing to follow but if it were a 600cc and they actually made this bike, it would get me very interested. The E4-01 seems like it was very close to being produced since they did make one and even made a video of it. Honda must have thought this would not have been a big seller in Europe or Asia. The U.S. doesn't buy enough scooters to be thought of as a main seller.

But they both are very cool scooters. I wonder what the E4-01 would have sold for if they did produce it.

You know, the lines are similar enough, that flat twin would appeal to both Gold Wing and BMW riders alike. A gentleman who may have felt the "twinge", while trying to board his Gold Wing, might step down.....actually up.....to an easy to mount, automatic, Gold Wing.....that happens to be a scooter.
I like the E4, but this one seems verrrrry marketable, to a seasoned rider.
Yes....I want a 2011 CBR 1000...... but I would probably be very content with this Honda. It would be traditional enough to remind me of my 73, /5 BMW, yet be new enough to fuel inject me away from the past, and into the convenient future.
Thanks for posting these pics, Jeff and Dale.....Jeff.